Bad Day
by yesfangirlingismylife
Summary: Tris Prior doesn't think her day can get any worse. From slipping and falling to screaming Disney songs in front of her crush, her day just seems to be getting worse and worse. See a new admiration form with these (what seem to be bad) things, and be perceived as good things. Watch a boy see bad as good from a whole new world- the world of Tobias Eaton. (One-shot)


**Bad Day**

"Christina, I swear you would not believe the day I have had—sweet Jesus. Seriously, something went wrong every damn period. First, In Mr. Rice's, he makes me come up in front of the whole class and give an oral presentation. You know, he does that thing where once a week he picks a victim? Well, yeah, this week it was me. Second period, in P.E., we were doing volleyball, and since I'm on varsity, the stupid gym teacher made me demonstrate. Totally shanked the ball while hitting. Christina, have you ever seen me shank a ball at practice? Have you? No, you haven't! I'm a sophomore on varsity, and that means I do not shank balls. Christ. Third period, Mrs. Yang confiscated my phone while I was texting my mom complaining about my day. Fourth period, pop quiz in chemistry, which I'm bad at as is without the surprise quizzes. Fifth, I had study hall. I thought, hey, it's just free period. What could possibly go wrong? Went to the bathroom. Started my damn period. Sixth, last period, the home stretch of the day, I trip in the hallway, fall flat on my face. Christina, I swear to Jesus Christ and all that is holy, if one more thing goes wrong, I will actually burn down the world."

"…Tris."

I breathe. "Yes?"

"Are you calm?"

I take another breath. In, out. In, out. "Yes. I am calm."

"Do you want me to bring you pizza?" she asks.

"Are you serious?" I grin.

"Leaving now. See you in twenty."

"You're the best. Drive safe! It's icy."

"Will do. Love you," Chris says with a laugh.

"Love you, bitch." I end the call. I close my eyes and continue eating my Ben & Jerry's and watching Disney's _Aladdin._

"Trouble? No way. You're only in trouble if you get caught," I quote along with the movie. "I'm in trouble."

I laugh and stare into my ice cream. I'm truly a very happy person and I keep my head up most of the time, but everyone has those days where they can't help but feel the world itself is plotting everything against them. Well, today would be that day for me.

Before I get up to go downstairs, I pause my favorite movie. I take my ice cream downstairs to put in the freezer, but also go down because my favorite sweatshirt is on the dryer.

"I can show you the world, bah dah dah buh, shining, shimmering, splendid. Tell me, princess, when did you last let your heart decide? Bah dah dah buh. I can open your eyes." I shovel on last scoop of ice cream into my mouth before coming down onto the first floor of my house. "Take you wonder by wonder, over, sideways, and under, on a magic carpet ride!" I enter the kitchen through the swinging door. "A whole new wo—"

I practically choke on my ice cream. "Oh, holy fuck."

Standing there, frozen, in a sports bra and leggings, spoon in my mouth, carton of ice cream in my right hand, I must look like an utter idiot.

Caleb's older junior friends all sit at my kitchen table, silently grinning and staring.

I see something flying at me in my peripheral vision. I reflexively catch it in my free hand. A sweatshirt. I don't know the name of the boy who threw it, but he's looking vexed.

 _Thank you, thank you, thank you, Caleb's friend. Thank you_ , I think to myself. I set the Ben & Jerry's down on the counter, put it on, and then take the ice cream to the freezer. Not even the sharp cold air from the freezer can calm my blushed face. I set the spoon in the sink and run out.

I hear an eruption of laughter, and then they suddenly stop. I don't stick around long enough to hear what else happened. Running into the laundry room to grab my favorite sweatshirt doesn't take long, and then I sprint upstairs.

My face still radiates red when I look in the mirror in my room.

"Oh. My. God," I say to myself. "Fuck me." I take off the enormous sweatshirt I have on and put on my own. "Jesus, Joseph, and Mary, could this day get any worse?"

"I'm going to hell," I continue to mutter to myself not a minute later.

My phone buzzes repeatedly, and I presume it is Christina calling me.

"Hello," I groan as a greeting.

"Dude, are all of Caleb's friends from my grade here? I'm parked outside your house and I see Uriah and Zeke Pedrad's cars. Plus Will… and oh, what's the other one? Tobias?"

"I don't know, but I'm actually freaking the fuck out. I am _shook_. I'll be at the door when you come up." I hang up the phone for the second time this evening.

My feet are fast on the wooden stairs as I run to the door. Luckily the kitchen is completely separated from the living room, only connected by the aforementioned swinging door.

Christina opens the door without warning. "I swear to God, if one of them says a damn word to me, besides Will, I seriously—"

"Yo, did someone bring pizza?" Uriah shouts. The other boys come out of the kitchen along with him.

"Yes," Christina begins, "but none for you guys."

I don't say anything and continue to keep my head down.

"We're going upstairs, and you guys are not invited. Don't bother us. Right, Tris?"

I surprisedly look up a little bit, and everyone gets quiet, expecting an answer out of me. I only look at Christina and quickly take the pizza upstairs.

When I reach the top, I hear Chris say, "she's a bit shy."

I'm caught off-guard when I don't hear laughter. Only their footsteps, presumably back to the kitchen.

Christina gives me a look of pity. I only shake my head.

"You know what the crazy part is, Chris?" I ask. I don't wait for her answer. "The crazy part is that I actually didn't think this day could get worse, and then it did. Do you know what happened before you got here?" I don't wait for her answer again. "I walked downstairs to put away my carton of Ben & Jerry's singing _Aladdin_. Topless. No shirt. Just leggings and a sports bra. They all laughed at me. Except for one… I actually don't know his name. This is his sweatshirt though. He wears it often." I walk over to my dresser and pick up the sweatshirt that saved me from so much embarrassment.

Christina's mouth drops as she takes a slice of pizza from the box. "You mean to tell me," she begins, "that Tobias Eaton gave you his sweatshirt and helped you?"

I slowly nod my head as I munch. "Eaton… Junior, right? Your grade?"

She grins. "Yeah. Academic Challenge state winner with his team, and he answered the last question to win it all… Varsity baseball since he was freshman too. He's got it all. He's usually pretty quiet, which is why I'm so surprised that he's here, and that he gave you his sweatshirt and stuff. The one he wears the most, nonetheless. The whole situation is crazy, really. I mean… you know what? You guys would be good together. You guys are both quiet, yet popular, but also fantastic at your sports. I'm semi-friends with him. I'll give him your number."

"Christina," I say assertively just after she finished speaking. "No. You're crazy. He's just a nice kind of guy. And besides, I'm kind of talking to Peter. You know that."

She rolls her eyes. "Peter is stupid and I hate him."

I laugh. "I know. I don't think things will work out with him though. I need something fresh."

"Exactly!" Christina exclaims. "Something like Tobias!"

I sigh. "Nah. He's kind of cool, isn't he? You know, like, popular?"

Chris shrugs. "Yeah, but so are you. You guys are both quiet populars."

As I shrug, I tell her, "I don't know. I might just play things out. See what happens."

Christina rolls her eyes at me. "You, my friend, are ridiculous. Here's what's going to happen. There's no way the two of us are going to eat eight pieces of pizza, right? Well, you're going to take what's left of the pizza down to the boys. Alone. Without me there. Okay?"

I laugh. "No. Absolutely not."

"I will lock you out of your room until you do it."

"Good luck with that," I fire back.

Christina shrugs, picks up the pizza, sets it in hallway, and comes back in as I take the last bite of my crust.

I already know what she's doing. As I sit criss-cross, with my arms folded, she picks me up. I don't move a muscle. She plops my ass down on the hardwood in the hallway of my home. She shuts the door behind me, and then I hear the click from the lock.

Still hungry. I open the box of pizza and eat a second piece. There are four left now that I ate that one. When I finish I finally stand up.

 _You can do this. Just act like their your friends._

Handling the pizza with two hands, I nervously walk down the stairs. They seem to still be in the kitchen. I stand before the swinging door. And with all my courage, I push it open.

"Hey, guys. Chris and I didn't finish this whole pizza. There's four pieces left, I think. If you guys want it, you can—"

"Yeah. Cheese?" Caleb asks.

I look at the four other boys. Tobias is looking at his soda pop and subtly smiling. The others just stare at me with a blank face.

I clear my throat. "Yeah."

"Cool," my brother says, then sits down. He and his friends start to practically inhale the pizza.

Tobias gives me a look, smirking, and I give a little smile back too. He can tell I'm annoyed. He mouths, "Thank you."

As a response, I give him a smile and a nod.

I decide to be brave and call the rest out on it.

"You're welcome, you ungrateful asshats."

Caleb, Zeke, Uriah, and Will all just stare, a little confused and a bit scared. Tobias, however, is a different story; he can't contain his giggles. I look at him, and apparently it becomes contagious. He and I end up giggling away, and eventually I force myself to walk out.

I am still giggling when I reach the living room, where Christina is.

"That," she begins, "was fucking hilarious."

Hours later, around eleven, Chris and I are not even close to being tired. So far we've watched Aladdin, Monsters Inc., Tangled, and Mulan. Nothing has happened besides the occasional burst of laughter from the kitchen. Chris sometimes goes and gets snacks.

At the moment, I am reading Christina my story to get her take on it. Out of the corner of my eye, I see my porch light turn on.

"Thank you, Jesus. They're finally leaving," I hear Christina say.

I look up again, but see that it's only Tobias.

"His sweatshirt!" I exclaim. I throw on my boots and grab his sweatshirt, sprinting out of the room. The boys remain in the kitchen, so luckily they won't know I'm talking to him.

Tobias is about to get in his car on the street when I finally grab his attention.

I now stand on the same side of the car as him, no more than a foot away.

"Um," I begin. _Fuck._ "Tobias, right? Eaton? Your sweatshirt. I just… I scratch the back of my head. Yeah, I really want to thank you. You know. For this. When the whole thing happened I didn't realize Caleb and his friends were over, so… Yeah, sorry about this whole ordeal. Um… but thanks. For everything." I hand him his sweatshirt, and he takes it.

Then he laughs.

 _Why the fuck are you laughing at me?_

"Tris, no need to be nervous," he says nicely.

 _Okay. Cool. Calm yourself._

He continues. "It's no big deal. I understand. I would want to be covered up to. I mean, not that you need to be. You're not fat. You're very beautiful. Um, I mean, toned. In shape." His face turns into a light red, and he seems to be extremely flustered.

"Tobias," I begin teasingly, "no need to be nervous."

He rolls his eyes and smiles. "Well, I didn't want you to perceive it as me calling you fat," he laughs.

I shake my head. "No, I understand what you meant. I have a nice body, but I just prefect keep that concealed."

Tobias smiles. "Me too."

We stand there, in the 30 degree weather, and both he and I realize that I'm freezing my buns off.

"Oh my gosh, you must be freezing. Here, get in my car."

I grin and walk around to the other side of the car. He starts the engine, and it takes a couple of minutes for it to warm up.

"So," he begins, "you're pretty shy, huh?"

I shrug. "Depends on who I'm around."

He turns on the heat, and then he looks at me. "Same goes for me."

"I feel like I shouldn't have gotten in," I laugh.

"Why's that?" he asks with true concern.

"I'm going to get distracted. I need to get to work," I tell him with a smirk.

"On what?"

Shrugging, I give him a vague answer. "A story."

"You seem like an amazing girl," he says suddenly.

I laugh. "I'm nothing special. Trust—"

"Cut the shit," Tobias interrupts. "You're beautiful and you know it. You've been on my mind since I saw you slip and fall in that hallway. By the way, I was going to help you up but you had practically sprinted out of there. And, Tris, to be frank, I would absolutely adore taking you out sometime. It'd be a privilege."

My mouth gapes, and I don't say anything. "I… uh… You…" I ponder for a moment.

 _Stop making excuses, Tris._

"I'd love to." I finally answer.


End file.
